Statement at 1.30 from Downing Street

[Viviennemary]

Please please let her be gone at 1.30.

Rishi Sunak is the only one with any credibility

But would he want the job in the middle of this utterly toxic mess?

I'm in the US for the next few weeks but am starting to wonder if there'll be much of a country to come back to ...

Seriously, this. Was nearly sick when I saw this emerging on Twitter. Surely the sheer gall of the last 24 hours and this outrageous possibility will spark organised protests and marches? I am IN. We need a General Election, none of the elected Party are fit to govern.

it's all just a funny little parlour game to the likes of Johnson.

@RiverSkater I’m with you. Unbefuckingleavable.

Reports that Boris thinks its in the national interests that he stands forward for the job again....

Rishi Sunak is the only one with any credibility

there is a reason that he wasn't voted in last time and has nothing to do with his credibility (angry face)

😱😱😱😱😱😱

All the reasons he was kicked out still stand. Are people's memories so short?

Bloody hell. Been busy all morning and just seen this thread.

Thank god she's gone.

Apparently Suella Braverman is going to stand again. Anyone but her, please! Even Johnson coming back would be preferable.

Surely they're not going to let the membership elect yet another dead in the water leader.

What a shitshow.

This is just farcical now. We need to have a general election ASAP. The conservative party can be allow to go on like this any longer, surely?

In some countries this would be grounds for a coup

general election now!

Tory membership would probably vote for Johnson but he's not so popular with Tory MPs. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

But if he does make a comeback the UK will further cement its reputation as a deeply unserious country. I'd like to think people might take to the streets in protest, but I'm not so sure.

Have to love Andrew Neil

*Oops, my pp should say, the conservative party CAN'T be allowed to go on like this any longer, not CAN.

If it is Boris I hope Hunt can reign in his confetti spending

Thank god she's gone.

Wonder how much she'll get for her memoirs?

Reports that Boris thinks its in the national interests that he stands forward for the job again....

Shocked, I am.

What is wrong with us? Why are we as a nation allowing this? We should be taking to the streets in our thousands and striking until a GE is called. This is a mockery of democracy.

Boris is funny. Nobody wants him back surely?
I bet he is laughing his face off

I agree, but the Tories know what it would mean for them and I think they will unite just enough for it not to happen. I'm thinking about least worst options for national survival (and part of me does want them to take accountability for the absolute chaos they've created)

This is a mockery of democracy

It really isn’t. We get to vote for a political party, and they get to vote for the leader of that party. There’s nothing undemocratic about it. We don’t get to vote on prime ministers.

It's madness that the system allows a small pool of members of the public, who pay their £25 to become a Tory party member, to decide two PMs in two months. Farcical anti-democratic shit.

I don’t think anyone could call this democracy in action. Fine to have a system whereby we elect a party and they elect a leader. Absolutely not fine to have no safeguards to sack that party if they show themselves to be cravenly corrupt and incompetent time and time and time again. Jesus Christ.

I'm in the "anyone but Sunak" camp. Under him we will all be even worse off as he taxes the shit out of us and cuts public services to the bone to balance the books.

There are 3 million reasons why Rishi shouldn't get the top job. That's the 3 million people HE excluded from covid support, many of whom lost their livelihoods, their homes and some lost their lives.